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At least 397 records · Page 22Linked to original sources

Epidural narcotic analgesia after thoracotomy.

The benefits of epidural narcotic analgesia (ENA) have been documented in mixed surgical populations. To assess the safety and utility of ENA after thoracic surgery and to assess potential interactions with intraoperative intravenous narcotics (IIN), we retrospectively examined the records of 130 consecutive patients having thoracotomy. The 116 patients who received ENA required a mean of 0.19 mg/kg of intravenous morphine sulfate (MS) within the first 48 postoperative hours, as opposed to 0.44 mg/kg for patients who did not receive ENA. The place in which nonepidural patients were extubated most frequently was the operating room (71%), followed by the intensive care unit (21%) and the recovery room (7%). Percentages were similar for epidural patients: 71% were extubated in the operating room, 20% in the intensive care unit, and 9% in the recovery room. Nonepidural patients had an immediate mean postoperative PCO2 of 39.2 mm Hg, epidural patients a mean of 40.1 mm Hg. There were no technical complications due to epidural catheter placement, and no reintubation was required within the first 72 postoperative hours. The concomitant administration of IIN did not produce a significant difference in postextubation PCO2 in either group of patients, although increasing doses resulted in a lower percentage of patients extubated in the operating room or recovery room. We conclude that ENA may be safely administered to patients having thoracotomy, and it diminishes the need for postoperative intravenous narcotics.

Adult↗

Narcotic analgesia in the acute abdomen--a review of prospective trials.

Withholding administration of narcotic analgesia in patients with acute abdominal pain for fear of masking pathology is still pervasive in current medical practice. We reviewed all the prospective trials that investigated the safety, adverse affects, and ultimate outcome in patients with acute abdominal pain receiving narcotic analgesia within the emergency department (ED). No adverse outcomes or delays in diagnosis could be attributed to the administration of analgesia. Based on this research, we propose that it is safe and humane to administer narcotic pain relief to patients presenting to the ED with acute abdominal pain provided no contraindications exist.

Abdomen, Acute↗

The mechanism of action of narcotic analgesics in the guinea-pig ileum.

1. Intracellular recordings were made from neurones in the myenteric plexus of the guinea-pig ileum. Single myenteric ganglia were maintained in vitro and drugs were applied by adding them to the perfusing solution. 2. Narcotic analgesics hyperpolarized the membrane of a proportion of neurones in the myenteric plexus. 3. The membrane hyperpolarization was sometimes associated with a decrease in input resistance. These effects reduced the excitability of myenteric neurones. 4. The effects of narcotics occurred at low concentrations (10 nM to 1 micrometer), were stereospecific and were reversed by naloxone. 5. It is proposed that the morphine-sensitive neurones may be the cholinergic efferents to the muscle layers. By hyperpolarizing these neurones, morphine may prevent their excitation by electric field stimulation. This may explain why narcotic analgesics reduce the output of acetylcholine and the contractile response of this preparation when it is excited by field stimulation.

Action Potentials↗

Narcotic analgesics, their detection and pain measurement in the horse: a review.

Narcotic analgesics produce pharmacological effects by interacting with specific opiate receptors. At least five major types of opiate receptors have been recognised. These include mu (morphine) and kappa (ethylketazocine) receptor types. Narcotic analgesics which interact with mu receptors produce locomotor and autonomic stimulation at doses that produce little or no analgesia. Therefore, use of these drugs as analgesics in equine medicine has not been very satisfactory. Theoretical considerations suggested that the role of kappa agonists in equine analgesia be investigated. Using a pure kappa agonist, U-50, 488H, good analgesia was produced in the horse with little or no locomotor stimulation or autonomic effects. These data suggest that kappa agonists may be superior analgesics for clinical use in the horse. On the other hand, the locomotor stimulant effects of mu agonist analgesics enable their use as illegal medications. Specifically, these agents produce a good running response, signs of central nervous stimulation and analgesia, all potentially useful effects in a racehorse. Regulatory control of most narcotic analgesics can be obtained by high performance thin layer chromatographic screening. However, effective screening for the fentanyls and small doses of etorphine can only be achieved by use of immunoassay.

3,4-Dichloro-N-methyl-N-(2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-cycloh↗

The narcotic discriminative stimulus complex: relation to analgesic activity.

The ability of drugs to produce the narcotic discriminative stimulus complex is found to be highly correlated with their analgesic activity; in contrast, no relation with their antidiarrhoeal activity is evident. The findings suggest that the narcotic discriminative stimulus complex is a centrally mediated effect of narcotic drugs.

Analgesics, Opioid↗

Continuous narcotic infusions for relief of postoperative pain.

Relief of acute pain after surgery or trauma is still inadequate in many centres, most patients being treated with intermittent intramuscular injections of narcotic analgesics. Over the past three years continuous intravenous narcotic infusions have been used at this hospital to treat postoperative pain; recently a system has been devised whereby an hourly dose is given and the dispenser recharged every hour. The method used is cheap and reliable, and signs of overdosage may be easily checked by nursing staff. Side effects rarely occur. Fifty patients who had received intravenous infusions after undergoing major abdominal surgery were sent a questionnaire to assess postoperative pain, and the results were compared with those from 50 matched controls who had received intramuscular injections. Of those who replied, only four patients who had received the infusion had found the pain distressing compared with 13 controls. Continuous narcotic infusions are most effective in relieving postoperative pain and may be given cheaply and reliably.

Abdomen↗

Neonatal thrombocytosis resulting from the maternal use of non-narcotic antischizophrenic drugs during pregnancy.

Neonatal thrombocytosis can result from maternal narcotic drug abuse. The case of a male infant is reported who was born to a woman with schizophrenia treated with non-narcotic psychotropic drugs during pregnancy; he developed severe prolonged thrombocytosis. The platelet count reached 1310 x 10(9)/l on day 15. This thrombocytosis persisted for three months. The patient was treated with dipyridamole. A bone marrow aspirate showed normal myeloid and erythroid precursors with an increased number of megakaryocytes. Plasma concentrations of interleukin 6 and thrombopoietin were suppressed. No obvious complications from the thrombocytosis occurred, and the platelet count fell to within the upper limit of normal after 3 months of age. This case indicates that thrombocytosis may occur in infants born to mothers treated with non-narcotic psychopharmaceutical drugs during pregnancy. The thrombocytosis in this case may have been induced by factors other than interleukin 6 or thrombopoietin.

Dipyridamole↗

Influence of glucose (in vivo or in vitro) on duration of narcotic analgesics and on the kinetics of drug metabolism.

The duration of analgesia of the narcotics, methadone, morphine and codeine was prolonged by glucose treatment. This prolongation was associated with a decrease in in vitro metabolism of the narcotics. Chlorpromazine metabolism was not significantly inhibited by glucose treatment, indicating that glucose exerts some selectivity in the extent to which it inhibits various oxidative metabolic pathways. Michaelis-Menten type kinetics showed a mixed type of competitive and noncompetitive inhibition of methadone metabolism upon oral administration of glucose or in vitro addition of glucose to an enzyme system prepared from mouse liver. Other factors may be involved, such as the possibility that glucose might increase the permeability of the brain to barbiturate. However, in glucose-treated mice decreased metabolism of the barbiturate and narcotics seemed to be the major factor in the prolongation of their duration of action.

Analgesics, Opioid↗

Influence of psychological and clinical factors on postoperative pain and narcotic consumption.

Demographic, psychological and clinical factors influencing postoperative pain and narcotic analgesic requirements in 162 patients undergoing elective operations under general anesthesia were studied. Eysencks Personality Questionnaire, Foulds Hostility Questionnaire, Zung's Anxiety-Depression (self-rating) Scales and the 43 Item Life Events Inventory by Holmes and Rahe were used. Clinical correlates such as surgical department, outcome of the operation, patient's knowledge of the diagnosis, were studied. Using multiple regression analysis the following results were obtained: postoperative pain levels increase with higher score of extroverted hostility (p = 0.038), abdominal surgery (p = 0.004), longer stay at hospital postoperatively (p = 0.15) and higher educational status (p = 0.13). Postoperative narcotic requirements increase with increased postoperative pain levels (p = 0.039) and preoccupation with pain postoperatively (p = 0.025), preoperative analgesic drug use (p = 0.017), abdominal surgery (p = 0.009) and longer stay at hospital preoperatively (p = 0.016). Also the department in which the patients were hospitalized influenced narcotic consumption.

Abdomen↗

Research and development of naltrexone: a new narcotic antagonist.

The author reviews the history of federally supported research in the field of narcotic antagonist therapy, focusing on social, political, and governmental issues. He describes the criteria for establishing an optimum narcotic antagonist, the legal guidelines for drug development, and the currently available narcotic antagonists. Research supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse has indicated that naltrexone is the most promising drug in this category. The author discusses the safety and clinic use of naltrexone, the status of the NIDA naltrexone program, and plans for future development of the drug.

Financing, Government↗

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors and narcotic analgesics. A critical review of the implications for treatment.

There has been a recent renewal of interest in the use of monoamine oxidase inhibitors, but the concurrent administration of narcotic analgesics is often a cause for concern. This review clarifies the different types of MAOI/narcotic interactions and offers guidelines for the use of narcotic analgesics in the presence of MAOIs. The MAOI/pethidine interaction has two distinct forms: an excitatory and a depressive form. Pethidine must never be used in the presence of MAOIs because of the risk of a fatal excitatory interaction. Morphine does not cause this excitatory interaction, and is the drug of choice provided an allowance is made for possible potentiation of the depressive narcotic effect. It is inevitable that strong analgesia will occasionally be required as an emergency measure in patients on MAOIs, and insufficient attention is paid in psychiatric textbooks to the two different types of interactions and their therapeutic implications.

Adult↗

Mivacurium infusion requirements in pediatric surgical patients during nitrous oxide-halothane and during nitrous oxide-narcotic anesthesia.

We were interested in determining the infusion rate of mivacurium required to maintain approximately 95% neuromuscular blockade during nitrous oxide-halothane (0.8% end-tidal) or nitrous oxide-narcotic anesthesia. Neuromuscular blockade was monitored by recording the electromyographic activity (Datex NMT) of the adductor pollicis muscle resulting from supramaximal stimulation of the ulnar nerve at 2 Hz for 2 s at 10-s intervals. Mivacurium steady-state infusion requirements averaged 315 +/- 26 micrograms.m-2.min-1 during nitrous oxide-halothane anesthesia and 375 +/- 19 micrograms.m-2.min-1 (mean +/- SEM) during nitrous oxide-narcotic anesthesia. Higher levels of pseudocholinesterase activity were generally associated with a higher mivacurium infusion requirement. During both anesthetics, younger age was associated with a higher infusion requirement when the infusion requirement was calculated in terms of micrograms.kg-1.min-1. This difference was not present when the infusion rate was calculated in terms of micrograms.m-2.m-1. There was no evidence of cumulation during prolonged mivacurium infusion. There was no difference in the rates of spontaneous or reversal-mediated recovery between anesthetic groups. After the termination of the infusion, spontaneous recovery to T4/T1 greater than or equal to 0.75 occurred in 9.8 +/- 0.4 min, with a recovery index, T25-75, of 4.0 +/- 0.2 min (mean +/- SEM). In summary, pseudocholinesterase activity is the major factor influencing mivacurium infusion rate in children during nitrous oxide-narcotic or nitrous oxide-halothane (0.8% end-tidal) anesthesia.

Anesthesia, Inhalation↗

Narcotic physical dependence and urinary sex-dependent low molecular weight proteins in male rats.

The relationship between urinary excretion of sex-dependent low molecular weight proteins (LMWP) in male rats and narcotic dependence is described in this study. Rats were intermittently infused with narcotics at one hour intervals through an implanted intravenous cannula. Development of physical dependence on morphine, pethidine, and pentazocine was detected by withdrawal signs including body weight loss and abnormal behaviors after naloxone challenge. In these animals, a significant decrease in urinary LMWP excretion was found following the second day of each drug treatment without significant changes in albumin excretion, and this decrease was observed continuously throughout the experiment. The markedly decreased level of LMWP recovered to the control level within 7 d after withdrawal of the drugs. These results suggest that the decrease in urinary excretion of sex-dependent LMWP in male rats is a phenomenon closely related to narcotic dependence.

Animals↗

A new analgesic testing method using ultrasonic stimulation. I. Effects of narcotic and nonnarcotic analgesics.

A quantitative method for measuring pain threshold by the use of ultrasonic stimulation in mice has been designed. The method had the advantage of precision, simplicity of technique, rapidity of measurement, and the fact that the stimuli is innocuous upon repeated application. The nature of the senstaions induced by ultrasonic stimulus is somewhat like that felt with a prick type of pain. Pentazocine (30, 100, 150 mg/kg i.p.) aminopyrine (15,50, 100, 150 mg/kg i.p.), phenacetin (100,150, 200, 250 mg/kg i.p.) sodium salicylate (150, 200, 250 mg/kg i.p.) and other antipyretic analgesics were active in a wide range of doses indicating that this technique is sensitive to the narcotic antagonist and to the weak analgesics as well as to the narcotic analgesics as well as to the narcotic analgesics such as morphine (2.5, 5, 10, 15 mg/kg i.p.), codeine (10, 20, 25, 30, 50 mg/kg i.p.) and pethidine (5,10, 15, 20, 25 mg/kg i.p.). The ultrasonic method is, therefore, applicable in screening procedures when attempting to evaluate the analgesic potency of a wide variety of chemical agents.

Age Factors↗

Clinical issues concerning alcoholic youthful narcotic abusers.

The combined addictive diseases of alcoholism and narcotics addiction are as common in the adolescent as in the adult population and have profound effects on health and outcome. Therefore proper clinical management of these patients requires the best available treatment of both the narcotic addiction and the best available treatment of the alcohol abuse problem. Alcoholism per se does not have negative effect on MMTP retention. Although methadone maintenance has been shown to be effective in the treatment of narcotics addiction in adolescents as well as in adults, methods and resources for the management of alcohol abuse within the modality are meager, parochial, and poorly defined. Future efforts must be directed towards developing more effective models for the treatment of the combined addictions.

Adolescent↗

Tooth retention, tooth loss and use of dental care among long-term narcotics abusers.

This study examined tooth retention, tooth loss and use of dental care among aging male narcotics abusers being followed-up for more than 33 years. The cohort of 581 male narcotics addicts admitted to California Civil Addict Program in 1962-1964 was tracked until 1996-1997. As of 1997, 284 (48.9%) were confirmed to be dead. A total of 108 surviving participants completed the oral examination and survey of use of dental services. African American addicts showed the least number of remaining teeth; and African Americans and Hispanics were less likely to utilize dental services compare to Whites. Factors significantly related to tooth retention were abusers' age (p = 0.0006), ethnicity (p = 0.01), income (p < 0.0001), smoking status (p = 0.03), and dental visits during the 12 months prior to the survey (p < 0.0001). These findings suggest that settings such as prisons and drug treatment programs that include dental care referral and follow-up would be expected to enhance oral and general health among narcotics-addicted individuals.

Aged↗

Quantitative structure-activity relationships for toxicity of nonpolar narcotic chemicals to Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata.

This study presents data for 27 nonpolar narcotic compounds regarding toxicity to Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata as evaluated using a closed-system algal toxicity test with an exposure time of 48 h. Two test endpoints, dissolved oxygen production and algal growth rate, were used to assess the toxicity of nonpolar narcotic chemicals on algae. Hydrophobicity (1-octanol-water partition coefficient [K(OW)]) provided satisfactory descriptions for the toxicity of nonpolar narcotic compounds, and quantitative structure-activity relationships based on log K(OW) were established. The relative sensitivity of various aquatic organisms to nonpolar chemicals was as follows: P. subcapitata > Vibriofischeri > or = Nitrosomonas sp. > fathead minnow > Daphnia magna > polytox > activated sludge. In addition, linear relationships were found between the toxicity observed in P. subcapitata and other aquatic organisms, except in the case of Nitrosomonas sp. Therefore, for nonpolar toxicants, the closed-system technique applied in the present study can be an ideal surrogate for other tests, such as fathead minnow and D. magna, that are either time-consuming or labor-intensive. However, because the current toxicity database is based primarily on the conventional batch tests, it cannot provide adequate assessment regarding the effects of various organic toxicants. Therefore, more extensive research is needed to revise the database for the toxicity of organic compounds on phytoplankton using the closed-system technique.

Alcohols↗

Effects of non-narcotic analgesics on the liver.

Serious hepatotoxicity is uncommon with the proper therapeutic use of non-narcotic analgesics but experience with new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is limited. Drugs such as ibufenac, fenclofenac and benoxaprofen were withdrawn from the market because of hepatotoxicity, and liver damage has been reported on occasion with virtually all non-narcotic analgesics. However, a clear pattern of toxicity with characteristic clinical, biochemical and histopathological abnormalities has emerged with relatively few. With the exception of acute hepatic necrosis following overdosage of paracetamol, little is known of the mechanisms of liver injury induced by non-narcotic analgesics. Involvement of the liver in a generalised drug reaction does not imply specific hepatotoxicity. About 50% of patients given aspirin regularly in anti-inflammatory doses develop mild, dose-dependent reversible liver damage as shown by elevation of the plasma aminotransferase activity. Liver damage is more severe in a small minority and it may rarely be complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation and encephalopathy with a fatal outcome. There have also been isolated reports of chronic active hepatitis associated with the use of salicylates. Salicylate hepatitis has been reported most often in young females with connective tissue diseases. Many patients with Reye's syndrome have been given aspirin during the prodromal phase, and this serious condition closely resembles subacute salicylate intoxication in children. Salicylate probably has a causal or contributory role in Reye's syndrome, but many refuse to accept this and the issue is the subject of heated debate. Paracetamol in overdosage causes acute hepatic necrosis, and liver damage has been attributed to its therapeutic use. However, most reports have involved chronic alcoholics who took excessive doses and in these patients the clinical, biochemical and pathological findings were typical of paracetamol overdosage. Many authors have failed to make the distinction between therapeutic use and a therapeutic dose. In other cases liver damage could have been caused by exposure to other agents, viral infection or naturally occurring liver disease. If these cases are excluded, there are very few reports of liver damage associated with the proper therapeutic use of paracetamol. In some cases, the picture resembled chronic active hepatitis but no causal relationship has been established between this condition and paracetamol use. Paracetamol does not cause deterioration in liver function in patients with chronic liver disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal↗